Competition section: Snowfall in Taipei - Director and casts appeared together at the press conference.

Director Huo Jianqi and the casts, Chen Bolin, Tanya, Yang Yuning and Morning Mo made their stage appearance for the press conference of the Competition section title, Snowfall in Taipei!

The film was written by a Japanese screenplay writer and was made into film by Huo Jianqi, the director of Postmen in the Mountains. The film, Snowfall in Taipei takes place in Taiwan. It is a love story which depicts about two young people who leads a beautiful and heartrending life.

“I was very impressed when I read the screenplay and thought that I wanted to express it as a film. We shot the whole section of this film in Taiwan. The staff and casts all spoke the same language, Chinese. We ate the same food too. There really wasn’t any difference compared to making the film at China. The cast and staff got along perfectly and we were able to shoot the film smoothly with extremely good team work,” Director, Huo Jianqi, explained his feelings about the film.

The leading actor, Chen Bolin praised the Director Huo Jianqi by saying, “He was the kindest Director amongst all the Directors that I have worked in the past. He never raised his voice even once to the end of the production. Even when a staff made a mistake, he would say “No problem lets try it again”. I have a feeling that the character Mo that I acted in the film is actually the Director himself when he was still young.”(Saying this with a laugh)

Next in line was Tanya. The direction that the Director gave to her was “Not to act”. “The character of May that I acted was a singer who made a sudden disappearance; I tried to create a unique characteristic in my own way and approached the film shooting. But when the production began, Director told me, “Try to be more natural. I like it better when you are the way you are because it’s realistic and that is what moves the people”. That is why rather than acting the role I’ve developed, I tried to draw out the parts inside me that were more like my true self and made the performance. It’s not so long ago that I made my debut but I was able to work with a wonderful Director and I would like to work with him again.”

Yang Yuning acted a role of a music producer who May, performed by Tanya, secretly admires. ”He is perfect in terms of music business, but his actual personality is somber and sluggish. I’m usually a lively type of person in real life that is why it was kind of difficult for me to play the part. For creating this role, I’ve tried to stay away as far as possible from rest of the cast. Even when the rest of the cast was having a cheerful conversation, I tried not to blend in with them. When the film shooting was completed; we all went out for a drink. That was when something inside that I kept holding finally exploded and I was able to exhale and become myself.”

Morning Mo played the part of an entertainment reporter, Jack. “The Entertainment reporters and actors have a very delicate relationship in Taiwan. I asked what kind of feelings he had when he was pursuing the scandal, to my friend who works as a reporter. He replied that he was interested in covering quality news rather than following his feelings. But he also told me that he had some conflict with what he did sometimes. His advice became a good reference for developing my character.”

The Director said, “I was looking at and treating the cast as if I was their parents but, there were some things that I needed them to do as a film Director. For example, there’s a scene in the film where Chen Bolin does a red pepper eating race. I shot the scene in full shot and then in close shot, and he had to eat the red pepper over and over again. I was sorry for Chen Bolin who was attached to me like my son.”

Finally the MC asked Chen Bolin to give a PR speech in Japanese. He spoke in a fluent Japanese saying “I feel shy because everybody else has spoken in Mandarin, but I would like everybody to come and see the Snowfall in Taipei!”